Symptoms of Hire Remorse

Nothing in the world can bother me right now.. Except for this slack message. 

It slips through my 1 bar of signal during my stop just before the cabin. 

It’s one of the last beautiful summer-like days of the season in the Midwest.

Just moments before this, 

I was ripping down a road in the middle of nowhere, enjoying the sounds of my family singing along to oldies and my V8 humming in the background.

My wife looks at me and asks what’s wrong..

As if she knows what I’m talking about, I say:

“What’s up with this guy?” 

“His communication doesn’t feel result-driven.. “

“He’s slowing the team down.. “

“He’s newby-ish”

“Is he even qualified for this position?”

My client hired him not too long ago. 

It bothers me because of my client's investment in adding this hire just before working with me.

It was a significant investment for him and it doesn’t feel aligned.

It concerns me for many reasons, but mostly because this client has a past of people taking advantage of him.

He’s one of the most giving, caring people I’ve ever met.

He has a ton of responsibility amongst multiple companies.

“When you always take accountability, if you allow people in your circle who don’t, they will definitely take advantage of it.”

I’ve found myself here with my own hires and many teams I’ve worked with.

Before I can reply to anything else, I lose signal completely and my team takes over for the remainder of the day and weekend.

After a full weekend of hiking, peace, and reflection.. 

I decide it’s crucial that I help my client get everything they possibly can out of this hire.

While helping this person seize this employment opportunity.

I’ve worked with hundreds of teams.

I have a history of maximizing the performance of sales, marketing, and even operations teams.

On the edge of that thought, I get a somewhat shocking audio message.

It’s my client.

He’s having what I call “hire remorse.”

It’s kind of like “buyer’s remorse.”

But it’s when you hire someone and you start to regret it 1-6 weeks in.

It can be due to a number of things..

• Fear of failure

• Bad experiences in the past

• Guilt

To name just a few.

It also pops up when you feel like you paid for one thing, but you’re getting something else.

For example I once hired a writer.

She did great during interviews.

Resume was solid.

Great recruiting agency.

Test tasks were awesome.

But after I hired her it was like I got a totally different person.

I was convinced she was outsourcing her work to a family member or something. It was very strange.

I went back and forth in my mind for weeks wondering if maybe I didn’t set her up for success, 

if I wasn’t meeting with her enough, or

didn’t share enough resources so that she understands my customer and voice.

Or if I got the wool pulled over my eyes.

When you always take accountability, if you allow people in your circle who don’t, they will definitely take advantage of it.

Eventually the discrepancies with her time and work became far too much and I fired her.

“High performance and executive positions are supposed to plug, play, and produce right out of the gate in my experience.”

This type of thing can be an incredible wast of time.

I’ve also helped companies who have great people on their team, but fire way too fast.

Firing too fast can kill culture, growth, and waste a ton of money due to the resources it takes to hire and onboard.

When my client shares that this new hire isn’t delivering it made complete sense.

So, I give him a few analogies and a framework that will save time and money spent on bad hires who need to be let go and good hires who may get fired too fast.

Here’s what I ask him..

What are your actual constraints today? 

What’s stopping you from doubling your profit and being able to focus on your fam more?

It’s def possible to make the wrong type of hire based on solving the wrong constraints.

Sometimes, business owners hire a CMO when, in reality, they need a really good executive assistant, a stronger reporting system, or a senior media buyer.

My next question is, 

If you look at this hire like investing in a real estate property.. 

And you consider the time and money investment you’re making..

Could you take those same resources and have found a much better deal?

For you reading, use any analogy you want when it comes to investing in something.

Another question I ask,

If you had a punch card, 

You know, like the ones you get at the ice cream shop where every 5 punch holes you get a free product or discount?

But lets say each hole you punch represents a new hire for this position you’re considering.

You only get 5 for the rest of your life, would you still have hired this person or kept looking? 

He has a light bulb moment..

And is contemplating whether to keep this person or let them go immediately..

“All the action in the world doesn’t matter if it’s solving the wrong problems, out of alignment, and low leverage.”

Even if you’re feeling at this point that you should let go of your agency, media buyer, marketing or sales director..

Here’s something else you can use to decide what to do..

Some vendors and team members are worth keeping even if there are some misalignments.

So again, I ask my client..

If this person were a car you spent 300k on..

That once received you realize you’re going to have to invest even more into it due to the fact you didn’t get what you thought you were getting…

Is there something special enough about the car that it’s worth keeping?

Was it in a James Bond movie?

Is it only 1 of 300 made?

The problem is,

When you invest a lot of money in a hire and then let them go, you lose all of that money.

But If you keep them it’s going to require investing even more.

High performance and executive positions are supposed to plug, play, and produce right out of the gate in my experience.

So is it worth keeping this person?

Mistakes I’ve also made are not giving a team member a clear score card,

Not having them report daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly on measurable outcomes that directly impact profit and revenue..

If there’s not a clear agreement on this and a way to measure daily you will eventually resent your team.

They may start to resent the company and their job as well because they have no way to win.

Lastly,

• Are they working on themselves?

• Are they asking you for help?

• Are they taking the advice?

These 3 questions are especially important if you’re at a cross roads with firing someone.

Maybe they’re a long time friend.

Maybe they’ve been with your company for a long time.

If any of those are a no, they get one meeting to course correct.

If it doesn’t change they’re out.

With these questions my client is able to slow down, zoom out and think for a moment.

Which totally goes against the 

“just take action”

“Money loves speed”

“Hire slow, fire fast”

Framework. 

In my experience those things are great when you’re just starting, but have been detrimental to companies over 1M.

All the action in the world doesn’t matter if it’s solving the wrong problems, out of alignment, and low leverage.

The best hires that have led to massive growth for myself and my clients have come from using a strategy optimization method called Scholars Mate.

It’s designed to put out fires and scale, making the fewest moves with the highest leverage, best risk-reward ratio, and most alignment.

This will be the next step in the process.

I’ll share the results in another issue of Scale Chronicles Newsletter.

Hope this helps you.

Keep shining your light.

-Lance C. Greenberg